Golden Hour

What started as a bone-chilling, damp, foggy morning turned into a pleasant afternoon, and then an absolutely gorgeous evening. It felt really good getting out of the house for a little walk and some playground time.

Matt brought his mini-drone to play with. It always draws a crowd of interested kids.

I recently exchanged my old Nikon D80 for a Sony RX100 Mark IV. It feels really weird holding such a tiny camera after lugging a big DSLR around for so many years. I feel very attached to my old Nikon - its original purpose was to distract me from the heart ache and bitterness of losing our first baby after a miscarriage, and has seen me through the births and milestones of three healthy babies, and so many other huge life moments. That being said, this little Sony is winning my heart. It's truly amazing to be able to take RAW images and 4K video on a camera that's tiny enough to fit in my pocket! It captures the light beautifully.

Sorry Not Sorry

This is going to be nothing but tree pictures, which is probably pretty boring to everyone but me, but I am obsessed with all the color changes around here and can't stop myself from trying to take pictures of every beautiful tree I see.

Since you made it this far, I'll reward you with a few cute-kid photos *wink*...

How to Have a Happy Monday

1. Clean your house really well Sunday night, so you when you wake up everything is neat and tidy.

2. Make sure you have something wholesome and easy ready for your breakfast on Monday morning.

3. Get yo-self (and yo-kids!) out of yo-house! Get fresh air (even if it does look like it's about to rain/snow.)

4. Come home, put kids down for a nap and have a cup of cinnamon flavored coffee. With coconut milk. (Cinnamon and coconut are a heavenly match, I tell you.)

I took the kids to the park closest to our house this morning. It's really just a sports complex, (lots of baseball fields) but it has a couple of small playground areas. We had it all to ourselves, which is my favorite way to have a park. It was gloomy outside, but the wind was warm-ish and the birds were singing and it was almost easy to pretend that spring was here. (Still waiting on tree blossoms and tulips and daffodils. So excited!)

My biggest goal for this spring and summer is to get my kids and I out of the house as much as possible. If you've never tried it before, it is really hard getting two small kids and yourself out of the house in the morning. But it is worth it. The fresh air, and seeing new people, and exploring outdoors is so, so good for us. I just need to learn how to get us up, fed, dressed and ready to go in a timely manner. I want this to be a really fun summer of exploring and adventure for our little team of 3!

12 / Washington Square + Kollen Park

A gazebo in Kollen Park.

This weekend's adventures started with exploring Washington Square in downtown Holland, a little "downtown" unto itself several blocks away from the busyness of 8th Street (Holland's "Main St.")

I had an appointment to get my hair done at Gretchen's Landing, so we had breakfast a few shops down at "The Biscuit" (I can't wait for friends and family to come visit us so we can take them there - so good!) Washington Square is so cute, they have their own restaurants, coffee shop, and some neat little boutiques including a yarn shop!

After breakfast we drove several blocks over to Kollen Park, which is right on Lake Macatawa. It's so pretty there, (even though the wind was pretty overpowering. Holland is windy!) There's a boardwalk that follows the edge of lake a long ways. 

There was also a nice playground that we all enjoyed playing on!

A Freakishly Fine Day

"Get me out of this stroller, woman!"

Tuesday was freakishly warm for December. Mid 70s! Kind of weird, but hey, I'll take it! We enjoyed running (and biking) around a park in VA with my mother in law. It felt like a last "huzzah" before winter decides to finally come around.

In other exciting news - we finally found a house in MI! This thing is actually going to happen! Moving day is swiftly approaching, and there's so much to do. I have a feeling December is going to go by very swiftly.